Our Services

Keeping dental treatment costs as affordable as possible is of great concern to our practice. We realize that this is an investment in your health that needs to be planned and budgeted especially when extensive treatments is required. The investment necessary to complete a specific treatment plan is based on an estimate derived from your comprehensive examination, diagnosis, and consultation coupled with our standard fees. Because treatment is customized to individual patient’s needs and not every patient has the same needs, treatment costs may vary. Also, should additional unforeseen conditions or new problems arise during prescribed treatment (which would have an impact on the amount of treatment needed and associated costs), we will inform you immediately, before any change from the original treatment is made.

Payment Policy

Payment is due at the time services are rendered without regard to insurance coverage (see below), unless previous financial arrangements have been made. Our staff is available during office hours for confidential consultations and for discussing our various financial arrangements. Please check with an office staff member to see what plan would best suit your needs.

Insurance Policy

We are pleased that some of our patients have dental insurance and other third party management payment plans. Unfortunately, many of these plans place limitations and restrictions on your dental care. We are most concerned about you and what is best for you. Treatment recommendations are made so that together we can achieve your optimum
dental health in order that you may enjoy your teeth for a lifetime. We do, therefore, recommend treatment without regard to insurance coverage.

Our staff understands dental insurance policies and procedures and will be glad to assist you in obtaining the maximum benefits specified in your contract and process your claim forms. You will be presented with the completed claim form in which case you, in turn, will mail to your insurance company. We will provide a predetermination of estimated treatment costs, if your company requires one; or, if you would like to know what the most accurate representation of your total “out of pocket” expenses might be for recommended treatment.

Office Hours

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Friday 8:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

The office is typically closed daily from 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

The office is closed on weekends and major holidays.

Appointments

Appointments are necessary. We will make every effort to be on time for our patients and ask that you extend the same courtesy to us. If you cannot keep an appointment, please notify the office 24 hours in advance so that we may give the appointment to another patient. If you are having extensive treatment or the appointment is estimated to be lengthy and you cannot keep the appointment, please give us at least 48 or more hours notice, as longer appointments are more difficult to fill on short notice. Despite our best intent, on occasion treatment emergencies do arise in our schedule causing unavoidable delays. We will inform you of any such circumstances, at the earliest possible opportunity, to avoid any inconvenience to you.

Emergency Care

If you have a problem requiring emergency treatment, please call the office so that we may see you as soon as possible. If the emergency arises at any time other than during regular office hours, call the office for the emergency telephone number, leave a message on the office machine, then call the emergency phone number.

We take every reasonable measure to protect you and our staff from disease.

The following is just a brief list of what we do and the measures we take to insure our patient’s and staff’s protection:

• We wear protective clothing and equipment.
• We disinfect treatment rooms after each patient.
• We sterilize our equipment with pressurized steam (autoclaving) after each patient.
• We use an independent source to routinely test our autoclave for effectiveness.
• We utilize a special service for disposal of biohazard material and other waste products.

Our staff regularly participates in continuing education for infection control and patient/staff protection.

We want to assure everyone that we are committed to providing the best quality dentistry for a reasonable fee while providing the best possible protection for patients and staff against numerous diseases and illnesses. We will continue to be on the leading edge in available dental procedures, materials and patients protection. We appreciate your understanding and support of our efforts to provide oral health in a safe environment.

In our office, your gums and underlying bone are of the utmost importance. The long term stability of your teeth and any restorative treatment depends on stable, healthy gums and supporting gums and supporting bone. Each patient’s periodontal health and diagnosis is unique and we believe strongly in the design and implementation of a program that will most effectively serve those individual needs.

A complete oral examination, including periodontal evaluation is performed initially. The type of hygiene therapy, number of appointments, and fee for treatment will be determined. This may include just a routine prophylaxis (“cleaning”) or periodontal treatment (deeper “cleanings”) or even a referral to a periodontist (“gum specialist”) in the most severe cases.

We will discuss your diagnosis, prognosis and periodontal treatment plan with you. Recommendations will be made regarding your next hygiene visit as well as the frequency of your continuing care. This is customized to meet your individual need.

The comfort of our patients is very important to us.

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make you comfortable during your appointment. If there is any way we can be better prepared for your appointment or if you have special needs or requests that we can accommodate, don’t hesitate to ask.